THE RANDALL FAMILY 1 65
which requires it. But I presume that religionists at the present clay think it not more necessary to be bound by their written constitution than the government of the United States do by theirs. Perhaps both will fare alike.
As for what you say of man's moral and religious nature being a test of truth in fact, I think it no more so than that Hope and Imagination are tests of fact. Both indicate only faculties. So, as to abstract morals, I think with Mr. Walker that a morality is such but by its results. As to another point, regarding laborers in piety, it is evident that salaries are certain means of calling hypocrites into the church, and here again I commend the practice of the Quakers. As to the employment in a special profession for teaching men their duties, I agree with Dr. Johnson that all men are moralists and doubt but little what are their duties, and I am of the opinion that to practise our own is the best instruction we can give on that head. The office of the religious teacher is plainly not founded on morality, but on religion, and in this merely to inculcate special tenets ; for, as to the religious or reverential faculty, I take it all the priests on earth could not suppress it. Indeed, the masses have the most of it, and it is modified but by reflection and education.
Neither do the people owe their tenets to their preachers. They first congregate in accordance with their instincts, and next invite a preacher among them who agrees with them, and they dismiss him when he disagrees. Formerly, it is true, he was expected to possess the character of a pastor or shepherd, but no longer save among Catholics. Rhetorical qualities are now alone demanded, and ever most in a republic like ours, where the people add presump- tion to ignorance and are captivated by words rather than by wisdom. To gratify this appetite there are abundant
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